This explains the menu
“I think that Onda’s going to be a little too hipster for me.”
“I can’t have dishes on this menu feel ‘basic’ and ‘normal’ under any circumstances,” Koslow told the chef. Cámara, who wanted the fritto misto in the first place, was not around. Between July and September, Koslow says, Cámara was rarely in Los Angeles. The restaurant that is “not Mexican but rooted in Mexican food” has had to more or less move forward without one of its roots.
“The reality is that this is more of a consultancy,” Cámara told me a few weeks ago. There was a hesitancy in her voice, and I didn’t know if it was because she wasn’t sure how much to reveal about her role, or if she was unsure herself what that role is. When I asked if she saw herself doing more consultancies of this nature, she sounded almost pained.
In June, when Cámara mentioned Onda on a podcast with David Chang , she described it as “in a hotel—talk about corporate.” Later in that same podcast, she was audibly annoyed when she admitted that Onda would have to handle the food in the hotel’s lobby. (Executives from the hotel heard the podcast and immediately texted Koslow, asking what Cámara’s problem was.)